Vane for Sebago

by Karen Day

While yachts and tattoos generally have little in common, the street-savvy boys behind Vane New York prove that everyone loves a good boat shoe with their urban rendition of Sebago's classic Dockside.

Both purveyors of quality, the two brands used their shared attribute to produce a shoe that comes together naturally while keeping to their independent styles. The outcome is a classy downtown loafer you can find in four different styles, each a limited edition of 360 pairs.

The Docksides are available on the Sebago website, or stop by the Vane pop-up store in New York's Lower East Side this Friday, 27 March 2009.

Vane for Sebago Pop-Up Shop
27 March 2009, 8pm
125 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002 map
tel. +1 860 413 9703

Eley Kishimoto x Eastpak Backpacks

by CH Contributor

by Laura Neilson

Eastpak's most recent spring/summer '09 collection, a collaboration with Eley Kishimoto, may just put the middle school backpack wars of LL Bean vs. Eastpack to rest. When I was growing up, while LL Bean loyalists had the option of monogrammed initials, Eastpak carriers occasionally gained the upper hand when the company turned out splashy, limited-edition prints. If any such rivalry still exists, Eley Kishimoto's snazzy trademark "flash" print, in red, blue, back and grey puts an end to that. Besides the classic backpack model, other styles in the limited-run collection include a messenger bag, a shoulder bag and a sportier backpack.

In addition to producing winsome prints for their own fashion line, London-based designers Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto have lent their bold, eye-popping designs to a spectrum of fashion houses and products, including Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Uniqlo, Volkswagen and even London's double-decker buses.

The backpacks are currently available for online purchase at the Eley Kishimoto website for £58.

Speedo x Comme Des Garçons Swimwear

by CH Contributor

by Kori Schulman

Speedo teamed up with Japanese fashion house Comme des Garçons, unveiling its fourth collection of designer swimwear.

The collection features a range of swimsuits, t-shirts, swim caps and goggles for men and women in two designs: a repetitive Speedo logo print and vibrant tie dye. We’ve never seen a Speedo look so good.

View the full collection at the Speedo website, or take a look in person at Dover Street Market in London or Colette in Paris.

Architectural Review Redesign

by Brian Fichtner

Architectural Review, the seminal publication founded in 1896, is receiving its first redesign in 20 years thanks to the people at Alexander Boxill. The project was executed by Violetta Boxill in collaboration with AR's art director Cecilia Lindgren.

Boxill notes in her statement of design, "In honor of the Architectural Review's tremendous legacy we decided to start our redesign journey by looking back through its archive. Visually, its graphic heyday was under the art direction of William Slack so we chose to re-draw/re-configure one of his original mastheads. Therefore embracing the past but introducing a contemporary slant by rendering the letterforms as a merged unit—[something that was] impossible in Slack's day as he used metal type."

The magazine's new editor, Kieran Long, keeps the idea of resurrecting ideas from AR's past going by introducing sections with names (skill, marginalia, id, outrage, etc.) culled from issues of the same era. Approaching these sections as "mini-brands," each will be based on one font but rendered in a variety of patterns and colors, which they plan to tweak throughout the year using different paper stock and spot treatments. The new design incorporates two fonts, Mercury and T-Star, a serif and sans serif in varying hierarchies and intensities throughout the publication.

via Dezeen

BMW Art Cars and An Expression of Joy Exhibit

by CH Contributor

by Laura Neilson and Tamara Warren

Autos, art and transit collide when Robin Rhode's painting made using BMWs as paintbrushes and four of BMW's iconic "Art Cars" are put on show at Grand Central Terminal starting tomorrow.

The project dates back to 1975 when French race car driver and art collector Hervé Poulain dreamed it up and commissioned his friend Alexander Calder to reconceive his race car as a work of art. Since then, the auto company has commissioned 16 artists to give their cars the not-so-typical paint job, including David Hockney, Jenny Holzer and, most recently, Olafur Eliasson. Of the four cars on display by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella and Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg's is particularly striking for his adaptation of other artist's works, which he processed by means of photographic techniques and projected onto the car. For example, on the left side of the car, we see Bronzino's "Portrait of a Young Man" and on the right side a painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. "I think mobile museums would be a good idea. This car is the fulfillment of my dream,” said Rauschenberg of his completed design.

A second part of the exhibition will include a 30-foot by 40-foot canvas by contemporary artist Robin Rhode, who used a 2009 BMW Z4 Roadster as his paintbrush—literally. Rhode mounted paint dispensers behind the roadster's wheels and choreographed the car's movement and paint dispersal with a remote control from a 30-foot tower overlooking the project. In addition to the actual canvas, video footage of the auto in motion will be part of the installation. Check out the video below for a sample.

Click here to view all 16 art cars.

BMW Art Cars and An Expression of Joy
25 March-6 April 2009
Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal
87 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017 map
tel. +1 212 843 9394

Paco Cube Prefab Vacation House

by CH Contributor

by Kelsey Keith

With its three meter square Paco Cube, Schemata Architecture Office reinvents the vacation house. The space age looking portable living cube with stark white epoxy interior was designed by architect Nagasaka Hisashi to be equally at home on a beach, in a forest or inside an industrial loft. Think of it as an upgraded tent, as conceptual in nature as it is multi-functional.

The wonder is in Paco Cube's layout, as the readymade kit includes a kitchen, shower, toilet, sleeping hammock, desk and lighting. The details of the space would make the curators of MoMA's prefab exhibition proud: the roof unlatches with hydraulic lifts (strong enough to hold the hammock when the hatch is open); sheer yet waterproof fabric encases the shower; the kitchen includes a tiny door to the outside for barbecuing; and the skylight and two LED 60 watt light fixtures keep things nice and green.

The unit (¥6,300,000) includes standard hook-ups so it can be plugged in to a direct water supply, electric water heater, sewage system and power lines.